Merry Christmas

Ryan told Ben that Jesus' birthday is so special that we ALL get presents. That explains it well enough for this year, I think!

I really struggled with "fairness" this year. Nate gets all of Ben's old stuff and didn't really need much. And he had a birthday AND Christmas that we needed to buy for. He is not even old enough to care, but I cared. I better fix my own problem before next year when he will begin to understand. 

Here is a video of our Christmas. It isn't very good quality, but you get the idea. 

Nate really needed a new car seat, but Ben was really the one that could benefit from a new one. So, Nate got Ben's old one and Ben got a new one. 

 On Christmas Eve we had two friends and fellow missionaries over for dinner. Ben and Nate had Maren read this book for a very long time.

 We let the kids open a few of the presents that had come wrapped in the mail. Thanks Maw Maw & Paw Paw, Uncle Mark & Aunt Lisa, Uncle Randy, Aunt Becca, and Cousins Wes, Jeremy, Avery, Olivia, Justin and Valerie!

  

 

 Santa got to work once the kids were in bed! Once we finished the train table we were really loving it! We hoped the boys would think it is as cool as we do!

 They did!

 We found a crackling fireplace on Netflix. ha.

And stockings too!

 

 In less than two hours this is where they had put ALL the train tracks and accessories...

 ...and this is what the train table looked like. We are already looking into museum putty that should be a temporary way to stick the tracks well enough so this wont keep happening. 

 But, Maren came back to join us for Christmas lunch and we managed to get it all put together again to play for a few hours.

 

The parents...Ryan checking out Ben's guitar

 and a pic to prove I was there since I took all the pictures.